Others

Similar Artists

Charles Aznavour

Biography

By the age of nine, Charles Aznavour knew he wanted to be a singer. Born to
performer parents who fled the Turkish massacre of Armenians in the 1920s,
Aznavour (born Chahnour Varenagh Aznaourian) dropped out of school before
age 10 and was performing in beer halls in Paris and around the countryside
as he matured. Part of a traveling duo, Aznavour began to compose songs
while his partner went out whoring. When Edith Piaf heard his work, she
paved his way: she mentored the singer, convinced him to go solo, and
brought him on her international tours. Over 600 compositions later,
Aznavour is respected as the man who brought class issues and gritty street
tales into the chanson tradition. (Chanson was a major style of French music
before rock 'n' roll.) A superb stylist and inimitable (if maudlin)
lyricist, Aznavour also acted in films by François Truffaut and Jean
Cocteau. Despite - or perhaps because of - his short stature, unusual voice
and rough-and-tumble upbringing, Aznavour is one of the symbols of French
chanson.